My post about 101 uses for coconut oil is one of the most popular posts on WellnessMama.com. I’m a huge fan of coconut oil and my family uses it for everything!
Jake Carney of TheAlternativeDaily.com joins me on this informative podcast to talk about the coconut oil secret, natural remedies and healthy fats.
Jake has an extremely popular book, The Coconut Oil Secret and you can get it at a discount by visiting this link.
In this episode, Jake and I talk about
2:03- How Jake became interested in alternative health
2:34- His big struggle that started at age 6
5:05- A tragedy in his personal life that was a catalyst for his own struggles
5:05- How his wife didn’t understand his struggle
5:15- What his doctor suggested and why he left his doctor’s office
7:35- What does everybody think?
7:54- How a surfing website helped him find answers
11:23- How TheAlternativeDaily.com got started
12:07- The free gift that had a huge impact on Jake
12:24- The site he will eventually start
13:30- When Jake started learning about natural living
15:05- How he first learned about coconut oil
16:56- What happened when he first started using coconut oil and why it made him sick
17:45- Why people looked at him strange
19:05- The drink you should never drink after noon!
21:20- An unusual use for coconut oil that I may or may not have tried
22:05- One thing you should NOT do with coconut oil
25:04- Is saturated fat bad for you?
25:50- The bad research against saturated fat
24:19- Is Saturated Fat causing heart disease?
25:36- Why coconut oil is not stored as fat and how you burn fat faster with coconut oil
28:21- Are trans fats really bad?
30:15- Why Jake doesn’t like Whole Foods
30:24- The problem with cottonseed oil and the nasty step in its manufacturing
32:10- His favorite natural remedies.
35:00- The 80/20 principle of green smoothies
36:01- The controversial part of health
40:26- Personalization
Resources We Mention
- The Coconut Oil Secret Book
- Kelee Meditation by Ron W. Rathbun
- My coffee recipe
- Apple Cider Vinegar– Jake’s Post & My Post
- The Alternative Daily.com
Thanks as always for listening. Just a reminder, you can get a discounted copy of The Coconut Oil Secret at this link.
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Katie: Hi, I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com. And this is episode 12 of the Wellness Mama Podcast where I provide simple answers for healthier families. Did you know that coconut oil and coconut products are among some of the healthiest food in the world? In the United States many people avoid saturated fats but coconut oil is unique for its high content of lauric acid and medium-chain triglycerides. In fact, populations throughout the world that consume the most coconut oil and coconut products have excellent health and low rates of disease. One example of this is the Tokelauans which live in the South Pacific. They get an estimated 60% of their calories from coconuts and they’re considered to be one of the populations in the world that consumes the most saturated fat.
In fact, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that the Tokelauans and Puka Puka tribes both had extremely high intake of saturated fat but were in excellent health with no heart disease. The National Institute for Health also reported that the Kettavan, a tribe from the Melanesian islands, had a high saturated fat intake and low rates of heart disease and stroke. In today’s episode, we will be delving into the world of coconut oil and what makes it so healthy.
Our guest is Jake Carney, founder of the wildly popular site The Alternative Daily, which has over a million email subscribers. He’s the author of “The Coconut Oil Secret” and you can find out more about Jake and get a copy of “The Coconut Oil Secret” at a discount by going to wellnessmama.com/go/coconutbook, all one word. I’m so excited to have Jake on to talk about one of my favorite foods, coconut oil, and what makes it so awesome. So welcome, Jake.
Jake: Thank you, Katie. How it’s going?
Katie: It’s going great. How are you?
Jake: Good, good, good. Thanks for having me.
Katie: I’m so glad you’re here. Let’s jump right in because I could talk about coconut oil I think all day long. But first I’d love to know how did you get into this field and start writing on your blog? I know it seems like every blogger has their own story. Was there a struggle you had personally or did you just research your way into it or how did you get started?
Jake: You know, it’s a great question because as you said many of us got into this whether it’s a personal struggle or tragedy. And mine actually had nothing to do with coconut oil. It actually happened probably…I don’t wanna kind of get all cliché’ and say it started around six years old but it really did. And I guess my big struggle was with death and the fear of death and dying and what happens. I remember being six years old and literally getting started to get panic attacks, waking up from nightmares of, you know, just of thinking about death and dreams about death and not like grim reaper type of stuff and like gory death but just like what happens when you die.
And, you know, and then kind of growing up in that religious background, you know. You’re kind of always into, “Oh, I’m just gonna go to church and kinda figure it out that way.” And come the age of 12, still having these kind of background thoughts and panic attacks and anxieties. And then, you know, I remember it was actually the beginning of my high school career. I actually missed a week of school because it just hit me even harder. It was one of those things where the thought of death and the thought of dying, my loved ones dying and there being nothing anymore was just…was so so scary to me and were just throwing kind of these panic attacks, anxiety, depression, that I just couldn’t…I couldn’t really even just get up and go to school. So I remember telling my mom about it and she was like, “You can stay home from school and we’ll figure this out.” You know, nothing really happened.
I went on to high school, college and what happens during those times is you start to mask some of your fears and anxieties. And so you go partying a little bit more and, you know, creating different, you know…just suppressing all of that stuff, all of those thoughts. And then about I would say five or six years ago I actually…it came to a head again and I actually had a very very dear friend who was killed in a car accident, completely freak accident, you know, at a red light, drunk driver hits him, gone. And that kind of just really started to kinda throw me off. And then three months later his wife actually died of breast cancer. And I just remember being like…and they had big kids who were my age. I was best friends with them as well. And so I just remember, “Oh, my God. I mean, literally, they’re both gone. Off, you know, off this earth within, you know, three months of each other.”
And then about four or five months later my grandmother passed away who I was really, you know, close with. And that’s when it just kind of, boom, hit me. I was, you know…you get the depression, anxiety, panic attacks, you know, waking up in the middle of night, being in the shower thinking about it. And I specifically remember one instance I was doing some yard work and I was walking up the actual yard carrying some palm trees or whatever they were. And I just remember just the thought of, you know, death and what happened. I literally found myself kinda almost screaming out loud just trying to, you know…kinda get that thought out of my head. And my wife was like, “Hey, what’s wrong?” And so we kinda talked about it. And my wife, she’s a very ones and zeroes type of person, you know. She says, “I don’t understand what’s the problem with it. You’re dying and that’s it.” And I was like, “You just don’t understand my panic and my anxiety.”
So, I ended up going to a doctor and this is before…this is what kinda threw to alternative health. Went to a doctor and at that point I’m like, “Ggive me anything. Give me Xanax. Give me anything you got. I really just wanna try, just wanna get this out.” So, I went to the doctor and he examines me. I tell him all that I’m feeling. When I get these thoughts I just kind of…heart palpitations, heavy heart breathing. I can’t…just things are all a mess. And he said, “Well, do you feel like you’re dying when that happens?” And I was like, “No, but I’m sweating. All this stuff is happening.” And he said, “Well, do you ever feel like you’re dying?” I’m like, “No, it’s the opposite of that. I wanna live. I don’t wanna die.” He’s like, “Well…” And he pulled out a book and he’s like, “Here’s the definition of panic attack, you know. It’s if you feel like you’re gonna die that’s a panic attack. If you don’t feel like you’re gonna die, it’s not a panic attack.” And I looked at him like, “You’re crazy. You’re crazier than I right now because I know this is panic attack. I know this is a huge anxiety I’m dealing with.”
And so he kind of took a step back and said, “Jake, you know, you’re 26, 27 years old. You should be worried about going out with your friends and chasing girls.” And I was like, “I’m married. You’re crazier now.” And so I literally just kind of left that office thinking, you know, god, I wish he would have given me something. And then too like where do I go from here? And it turns out that I’m really glad that he never gave me anything.
So, you know, couple weeks later I’m sitting there dealing with it. And it’s funny, I did mention that I kinda grew up, you know, religious background, went to Catholic school. I remember being outside of my front yard again and my mom…I was just kind of all just a mess. And my mom said, “What’s wrong?” And I kind of sort of explained to her. She looked at me and my mom, devout Catholic, everything has been gone that dogmatic route and she goes… I told her what’s going on and she was like, “Jake, you need to find a spiritual balance.” And I kind of like looked up and looked at her and I was like, “What do you mean?” And she was like, “You know, the church isn’t…you know, if you don’t wanna go to church, if you don’t wanna read the Bible, if you don’t wanna do it,” she’s like, “Just find some type of balance. Find some type of spiritual balance.” And it hit me and that was like the first time there was kinda like this opening of, “Wow. You know what? I don’t have to do it, you know, the way that everybody else is saying to do it and stuff like that.”
So, the next thing I did was I started researching, you know, what Buddhists think, Hindus think, what do atheists think, you know, what does everybody think and just be like extremely open with this. And so I got a bunch of information, obviously some conflicting, some non-conflicting. None of them had the exact answer. And then this was the coolest thing, and I stumbled upon a website. It’s a surfing website that I check all the time because I surf here in South Florida. And there’s this professional surfer by the name of Taylor Knox, really awesome surfer and also a very good human being. And he mentioned that he always practiced what’s called Kelee Meditation, K-E-L-E-E Meditation. And I was like, “Wow, that’s sounds cool. He’s a surfer. I surf. Let me see if I can, you know, look that up.” And so I looked it up and I found this website, terrible looking website, and it actually had the meditation practice on there.
So I’m thinking this guy’s a terrible marketer and why isn’t he selling this? And so he tells you how to do it and then you could buy also buy his book literally for I think it was like…it was a hardcover book, you know. You actually get it from Amazon. It’s like $4 or $5. And I’m like, “Well, this is kinda cool because you’re not charging a lot of money for it.” And so, you know, I started doing the practice. I got the book, got in touch with his wife, you know, who kinda runs the website and kind of, you know, been…was talking back and forth with her. And then I started practicing that every morning and every evening every day. And it was tough because, Katie, I’m sure running a business and having personal life and having kids, it’s all these things, so many things go through your head. You go through this day kind of like, you know, a fuzz, just getting the next thing done, next thing done. Well, every morning I stop for 5 to 10 minutes and every evening I stop for 5 to 10 minutes. And I disappear. I had to go after dinner and people are like, “Where are you going?” I’m like, “I have to go to my meditation. I got side eyes.” It was like, “What are you doing that for? That’s weird. It’s like black magic.” “Okay, whatever.”
So, I would do that every day and then one day probably about three or four months into it I…and again as I was kinda going through this, it’s kind of like I could start to feel like I was having less and less panic attacks and anxiety. And then one day during my actual meditation practice…now the whole thing is you don’t wanna be thinking about specific things in the practice I do when you try to really get to a still point, we’ll just call it. And one thought that came up, and you kind of get to a point where you can kind of like see your thoughts. I won’t get too much into it. And kind of the one feeling I got was the whole death feeling. And I felt the heart palpitations. I felt…you know, my body temperature rose. I started sweating. And for the first time ever, like I did not run from it. I didn’t run from it. I didn’t throw up another thought. I literally just went into it and just felt it and went into it.
And then at that moment, it was literally just…it was just unbelievable feeling of peace and nothingness I guess you could say. And I don’t wanna kind of describe it, label it or anything like that but I really just feel…they were just completely gone, you know. The panic attacks, the anxiety was completely gone. It was just a cure…stillness is what, you know, we come to know it as. And after that I continued to do it. But, you know, that moment lasted for maybe a couple seconds and then, you know, you kind of get out of it like, “Oh, what was that?” Your mind starts to race again. And then…but everything changed after that moment, you know. Life slowed down a little bit and I continued to do my practice. The anxiety and the panic was gone.
And I could never have this conversation talking about death and what happens and stuff like that. Previously, I would literally get sort of panic attacks but after that I could literally start talking to people like, “This is what I was afraid of. This is how I fixed it.” And then I started thinking, you know…and this is actually after a couple months of doing it, actually probably a year into it. I was like, if I can do this, if I can truly do this, I can truly help people who’re having the same things because I know there’s people out there that have panic attacks, anxiety and high levels of stress. And so I went online and I was like, meditation daily. That’s a cool name. Let me get that.
So, I looked online, you know. There was a URL that was available, meditationdaily.com, but it was from one of these domain sellers and it was like $500. I tell my wife, “I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna save the world. I’m gonna do meditationdaily.” And she was like, “Great. How are we gonna pay our bills?” And I was like, “I don’t know yet. Let me just do this.” So, I bought it and then I literally just sat back and thought…actually I meditated on it and was thinking, you know, meditation is…going back to Ron Rathbun who is the author of the “Kelee Meditation,” I kinda went back to his whole idea which was…he just put a website. I stumbled upon it and he was giving it away for free. And I was just like that is amazing and that’s how…there’s a bunch of other meditation packages and stuff out there that you can buy for $39.99, whatever they are. But he’s it giving away for free on his site. And I was like, “That for me, as somebody in that state, was completely legitimate and awesome.”
And so I saw that and I decided to shelve the idea of meditation daily for another day where I could afford to run it at completely no cost. There was no, I was not trying to monetize it with, you know, different…wasn’t gonna have any type of business model around it. It was just like gonna be a place for people to come and learn meditation and stuff like that. So, I put that to the site because I just believed that from a meditation standpoint you don’t need to pay anything to be happy and find your stillness. And, you know, you don’t have to pay anything and you shouldn’t have to give or get money for that.
And so I said, you know what? I’m gonna save that for a rainy day which I would love to do down the road but I can still help some people and still probably make a living off of that in the alternative health field. And so that’s what I kind of got together with a friend and kind of told about my experience and he said, “I love the idea. I love the idea of, you know, helping people out and making this truly lifestyle business where we can help people out and we can do this on a day-to-day living.” And so we kind of broadened our, you know, our reach from meditation to alternative health. And that’s when I started learning about, you know, foods, the toxins in the air, toxins in your food, you know, exercising, fitness.
I mean before I was just kind of a surfer who was pretty, you know…just kind of went about my day, not worrying about, you know, the food that I was putting in, etc. But after that really kind of experience I had and wanted to help people out, I started learning more and more about healthy eating, healthy living, healthy…mindful living and just kind of day-to-day how to make the world a better place. And that’s how really I got started with The Alternative Daily and it’s been one of the best, most life changing experiences I’ve had in my life.
Katie: That’s awesome and I love that you’ve reversed all those problems and that you’re feeling so much better and obviously thriving now. And I’m sorry for your loss of those three people in your lives but it seems like you’ve turned it into an amazing thing also. And now to go from a heavy subject to a light subject, but I know that something we both write about and are passionate about is coconut oil. So, I’d love to hear how you originally found out about coconut oil and how you started using it.
Jake: Sure. It’s funny because once I started the site, started researching things and foods and toxins and stuff like that, you know, the one thing that you always kind of run across is that kind of controversy which is, you know, healthy fats or it’s bad fats, good fats versus not good fats. You know, one food that I’ve always enjoyed is the coconut. I always love the flavor. It’s kind of a tropical flavor. You always feel like, you know, you’re at the beach, etc. So, always been a fan of the coconut flavor and again going back into that controversy of good food versus bad food and what mainstream is telling you and what the contrarians are telling you, I saw an article about coconut oil and it’s something I had never tried before which is kind of, “That’s cool. You know, I like coconut.”
So, I decided to, you know, start eating it. And it’s funny, as Katie you could probably, you know, understand is when you start introducing fats into your diet, healthy fats, it does a little bit…and this is for some people and not everybody but for a lot of people, you start to…you go through a transition period. So, I took my first scoop of coconut oil and I could have had like a bellyache that morning. And I was like, “What is going on?” And so I didn’t eat anything that morning. I just decided I was gonna eat coconut oil. I was talking to somebody like, “You need to at least eat something before you introduce something new like that.” I was like, “Okay, let me do that.” So I was eating…you know, started to eat a little healthier and introducing, you know, coconut every morning.
And then I finally kinda got over that, you know, that little bit of a bellyache and now it’s obviously part of, you know, my morning routine, etc. But it was funny because, you know, people start giving you that side-eye when you start using something strange to them which is, you know, a fat, coconut oil fat. And I started cooking with it more and my family was like, “Oh, my gosh. You’re putting in…is that lard you’re putting in, cooking these chicken breasts?” I was like, “No, it’s coconut oil.” And so I’d explained to them, you know, the different benefits of having CTs and you’re actually burning fat, etc. And they’re just like, “But why are you putting lard in there?”
So, I started introducing it to that way and then I think you also wrote this Katie is the Bulletproof Coffee which is awesome. And I started making a morning coffee with my typical normal coffee, you know, 8 ounces to 10 ounces of coffee and then a tablespoon or two of grass fed butter and then a scoop of coconut oil. And that’s part of my, you know, routine in the morning now which extremely helps, you know, your mental clarity. Also a huge boost of energy. I never had any boost of energy much like…I mean even compared to the famous espresso, etc. You only need one coffee a day when you have one of those Bulletproof Coffees. And people again always are giving me side-eyes when I start introducing, you know, coconut oil any way I can.
Katie: I’m right there with you. I put coconut oil and MCT oil and butter in my coffee and I found you can’t even drink it after like 11:00 or you don’t sleep because you have so much energy.
Jake: I tell people, you know, this is a drink…you know, don’t even try make it after 2:00 because you’ll be up all night.
Katie: Absolutely. So, can you delve into a little bit more of why coconut oil is considered a super food?
Jake: Sure, sure. And it’s funny we talk about this because super food…the term, and you probably understand that super food is a term that gets overused. So many people there’s…you know, you see anything on all these different articles and blog post. An apple is a super food. A banana is a super food. I mean they’re great, don’t get me wrong. But, you know, we really, at The Alternative Daily, we really try to be careful of what we label super food. And from our definition, you know, it’s gotta be completely nutrient dense. You gotta use pretty much all of the fruit whether it is, you know…whether you’re consuming it or what not. And we also look at the, you know, the tree itself. And again this is our definition because we’re very very particular what we call super food.
And if you look at the, you know, the actual coconut palm, and as I said, down here in South Florida so there’s a lot of coconut palms here. You know, you can truly use the whole tree. So, you actually have the palms that actually people use, you know, for Tiki Huts, etc. And then you get to the heart of the palm which is great, really good food to eat. And then you actually get kinda close to the palm and you have this coconut sap. And coconut sap if dried out or even used as a nectar can be used to sweeten things and that is my go-to sweetener. So we talked about, you know, coffee, iced, sweetened, anything I can with coconut crystals.
I’m not a big sugar eater. I don’t like a lot of sweets and that’s just not from a health perspective. I just actually prefer salty foods. I just don’t like a lot of sweets and baked goods. So, any type I…you know, if I’m gonna make my coffee, I put, you know, coconut crystals in there. It’s so good. And it’s not super sweet but it gives you that coconut taste. And then you take a look at the nut, the fruit itself, the coconut, which is, you know, awesome. It’s an awesome looking thing. I mean who doesn’t love seeing that. And you actually have the shell which a lot of people use for, you know, for pots and cups and different things that we’ve seen down here. Then you have the coconut meat, very nutrient-dense and then you have your milk or…you know, actually your water which you can convert into milk later.
So, there’s all so many parts of this actual palm tree that you can use which is why we actually label it a super food for us. And, you know, and then you get down to the actual oil itself and it’s like any other oil that’s out there. You know, it provides a tremendous amount of energy for cellular health. You can start burning fat just by eating it. And it’s just one of the things you can literally put in anything and be good. And then lastly what I think is really really super cool about it is that you don’t even have to…I mean you can eat it. I mean we all love to eat it, you know. I think, Katie, you get gallons of it. But being down here in Florida, I actually use it as my sunscreen. You know, I can put it all over my body, you know, put it in and it’s actually kind of like an SPF, you know. From our research we’ve seen it like anywhere from SPF 7 to 10. So, you could actually…and that obviously helps with, know you, burning. Also if you have burns, you put it on and it can help, you know, ease the burn and especially with wrinkles, it’s a great anti-aging source as well.
So, it’s so versatile that it’s just…that’s why we consider it super food. There is one thing you should not do with it though and I learned this the hard way is so when I go surf, you know, if I have to put on whether it’s a sunscreen or hat or something like that, you know, I’ll put it on before. So I’ll put on, you know, coconut oil one time, went out there then I jumped on my board and I completely just like slip and slide, you know, slip and slide right off. And so it’s not too waterproof so as soon as I jumped on it kind of threw me right off and then I did lose a lot of my…I did get a little burn because it kind of washed away. But you definitely…it’s good, if you’re gonna be in the sun, minimal amounts to put it on and I just always, you know, always put it on. I’m a bald guy so my head tends to get a little, you know, dry so what I’ll do is, you know, literally in the morning and my wife looks at me again side-eyed and weird that I’m putting oil over my body. But again put it all over my head just kind of keep me nice and moisturized. And that’s, you know…and closing to that one that’s really what a true super food is in our books is something you can use in all aspects of life.
And I’ll keep this G-Rated because it’s funny but we ran a contest on our Facebook. We run a bunch of contests on our Facebook page. And we were asking folks, you know, tell us what your best use of coconut oil is. We’re gonna send you a free, you know, a free jar of it. And we’re gonna send out three or four jars to people. And I got this private message from somebody. And she says, “I wanna win…” and it was literally this, “I wanna win a bottle of coconut oil but I don’t wanna post this, you know, to the public.” And I was like, “Okay, do tell. What is it?” And she said, “You know, I went to a doctor and, you know, I’ve had cancer before. I’m in remission and I wanna be really careful with what I put in my body.”
And she was like, “So I asked my doctor, what can I use as a lubricant?” And he said, “For a personal lubricant, if you don’t wanna use any of the chemicals, coconut oil is the best personal lubricant that you can use.” And closing of her story, she says, “And now I’m on my second honeymoon with my husband and we’re having an absolute blast here.” And so I responded back to her and I was like, “You win the bottle of coconut oil. I don’t care how many I’m giving away. You’re definitely winning one.” And I actually sent her one. So, it was a…it’s good to kind of hear that from other people’s uses of how they use it and that was one that will always stick out my head.
Katie: That’s hilarious and I definitely have not tried coconut oil while surfing, although surfing is on my bucket list and I won’t comment on whether if I’ve used it for the other purpose or not. But we have a lot of uses in our house. I’ve got actually like my most popular post most weeks is My 101 Uses of Coconut Oil. And what’s always funny to me is when I find someone who I know is pretty new to my site and they leave a comment on that post like, “You’re crazy. I’m never gonna read anything you wrote again because coconut oil has so much saturated fat and you’re killing all these people.” So, can you address the saturated fat and coconut oil problem and talk about why that really is not an issue?
Jake: Sure. So, you know, the whole saturated fat versus, you know, unsaturated fat has been like…it’s a huge controversy. And I don’t even know what’s the controversy anymore but it’s one that, you know, us folks in the alternative health field definitely march to our own, you know, beat too. And it’s good because it’s finally, finally, finally catching on. I mean you’ll see it on Huffington Post, CNN about why saturated fat is now good for you. And, you know, for the past 60 plus years this was in really, really bad publicity for a saturated fat. Now, a lot of it had to actually do with a specific, you know, actual theory or hypothesis called lipid hypothesis. And I won’t get into kind of the details of it. But basically what it says is, you know, saturated fats are causing, you know, high cholesterol, clogging your arteries, etc. And after doing a further review of that later on within these past couple years they found that a lot of that was just shoddy research.
And the cool thing with technology and the Internet and everything’s coming out and all the different bloggers and publications sites that there we can all share information. And so now what’s happening is a lot of…they’re doing a lot of new studies on whether or not coconut oil, being a saturated fat…not so much coconut oil but saturated fats are actually causing clogged arteries, belly fat, muffin tops. And it’s…couldn’t be further from the truth. The actual kind of fatty chains that make up the coconut oil, and you talk about this in your intro with your MCTs, medium-chain triglycerides. And what the cool thing is is the body does not actually store that as fat. It actually gets converted into energy or these ketones.
So, what you’re actually doing by actually eating, it’s a thermogenic effect. So when you’re eating coconut oil, literally you take a scoop of it, you’re burning fat as you’re eating it and digesting it. Now, not to say that you should just sit at your computer and just snack on coconut oil all day and you’re gonna get like six-pack abs but it’s a great food to eat during the day in addition to your diet and exercise program. And so that’s the one cool thing about it is with those MCTs is that literally, as you eat it, you’re burning fat. It’s not causing high cholesterol. It’s not clogging arteries. It’s not giving you the belly fat, muffin top, bat wings, etc. It’s actually burning fat as you’re eating it.
Katie: I love that. And it seems like in the past few decades, especially in America we’ve moved away from coconut oil and saturated fats like butter and lard and tallow and into oils like canola oil and vegetable oil and soybean oil and corn oil. And those are usually promoted as healthier alternatives to saturated fat. So talk about those. Are those healthy alternatives or should we avoid those?
Jake: You know, I’m the biggest defender of this and this is obviously, you know, five, six years ago and prior to that. You know, any time we were gonna cook something in our house it was vegetable oil. Go get the canola oil, you know, go get the soybean oil, you know. We’re not gonna use the butter. Who use the butter, it’s gonna, you know, it could give us heart attacks. And it’s so funny because I was actually going into my cover the other day. All the way in the back, you know, there was a bottle of, you know, what was it, Wesson oil, I forget what it is. But it said vegetable oil and I was like, “There it is.” You know, I was…been to the back because all my coconut oil’s in the front. And so obviously, you know, I disposed of that in an environmentally friendly way.
But, you know, what you have with those vegetable oils like fat is, you know, you get the partially hydrogenated oils which is actually causing trans fats. I was just looking this up the other day and I was like, “Let me at least…” because I always like to take a look at, you know, things from a very open perspective. Meaning, you know, something just tells me trans fats are bad, I’m just not gonna believe them. I wanna understand why. And another question I have is…and I’m a big natural nature person so, you know, not to say that everything that occurs, you know, naturally is “healthy” which isn’t necessarily true but it helps when you’re kind of trying to figure out what you should put in your body.
And so I was actually looking up, you know, transfats and trying to figure this out. And I was like, “Are there any…” One of my question was asking, you know, “Are there any naturally occurring transfats?” It turns out there actually is but such a small percentage, like it’s such a small percentage of all the food out of all the plants and animals out there. It’s actually a small percent is contained in animal products such as, you know, cattle, beef and some dairy. But it’s so minimal that it really really doesn’t register. And so what happens is, you know, people really wanted to have like a low calorie but a good tasting food so they started creating these partially hydrogenated oils. And all they’d really do is injecting, you know, hydrogen into them making it a very good type of fried food, gives it a good flavor. And that’s what’s causing all of the issues that people are having now.
And so then we also try to get…even some of the savvy, let’s say, you know, canola oil marketers, etc. were trying to get away from that. So they start doing the canola oil, you know, soybean oil, etc. and your cottonseed oil. But, you know, that’s created from, you know, GMO types of food products and the one thing about cottonseed oil which a lot…if you look… I’m a big Whole Foods guy. I do love going to those markets and looking but I still…I don’t trust Whole Foods. So, I’ll go there and look at the ingredients of different foods and you’ll see things that contain cottonseed oil, you know, soybean oil, etc.
And the one thing about cottonseed is is that the cotton…you use the cotton to make clothes but what they’re also doing is they’re spraying pesticides on it because it’s not meant for consumption and so they’re just making clothes with cotton. Well, you express some of that cottonseed and to make it oil, you’re gonna get some of those pesticide use. They’re not worried about GMO because if you’re putting it on your clothes, if you put it on your body, really doesn’t matter if you’re putting on GMO cotton on your body. You’re not eating it but they’re taking those seeds and they’re making oil out of it. And, you know, that’s just one thing to be wary of. So even though you might see something that says low calorie or good fats, whatever, just make sure you do your research and try and figure out where those came from.
And the majority of the cottonseed oils, soybean oils and obviously the vegetable oils are GMO so you really wanna try and steer clear of that. But then one more thing that I wanna say about that is a lot of those other oils have a high Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio and you kinda want it the other way. You want a higher Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio.
Katie: Let’s see. So, we have talked about how coconut oil supports your body in a lot of ways and your metabolism in many different ways to use coconut oil. But I’ve been reading your site actually a lot in the last few days and loving all your information. So I’d love to switch gears a little bit and touch on some of your other popular natural remedies that you talk about on your site and things that you find helpful. So, what are some other ones that you find that people are coming to your site looking for or having great success with?
Jake: Sure. That’s a awesome question. What we really found with our folks is they just want the easy stuff. You know, they just want the easy stuff that they can go to their kitchen cabinet and look for and just do and feel good about what they’re doing and then literally feel from inside their body good about it. And the other one that really kind of, in addition to coconut oil that people are really really psyched on, is apple cider vinegar and just the tons of benefits that come with it. You know, it’s one of those things that I’ll drink, you know, first thing in the morning as soon as I get up, you know, make a little bit of a splash of two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, you know, 8 to 10 ounces of water. You could put honey in there or, you know, coconut sugar if you wanna sweeten it up. But what I really find that kind of balances out, you know, your stomach in the morning, sometimes you might wake up from the night before whether you had maybe one more beer, one more glass of wine than you should have.
And I’m not talking about being hung-over but you might not…your stomach might be feeling a little off in the morning. I’ll just immediately just drink a big glass of apple cider vinegar and it really kind of helps balance out that pH in the stomach. I’ll do that the night before too because, you know, even if you’d…let’s say you do have a meal where you may have one too many crackers or you may have a little bit of bread or pasta, your belly might not be feeling good. I’ll do the same thing the night before. It also has been shown to reduce, you know, blood sugar by 6% by morning and we wanna really kind of normalize out our blood pressure, I mean blood sugar, but it also has really…personally it settles my stomach.
So, if I’m feeling a little, you know…having a little bit of an upset stomach I don’t go for my Tums and I don’t go for the different antacids, you know. I’ll have, you know, a big glass of apple cider vinegar and it helps, you know, really really kind of sooth things down. So, apple cider vinegar is what…and again it’s…we consider that as super food because not only can you, you know, drink it but you can definitely cook with it. And then also same thing with kind of anti-aging and skin burns or wrinkles, etc., you could definitely just rub it on your body, use it in your hair. Our writers…I have a team of about 10 writers for the site and they love it. They’re the ones that are using it as a shampoo in their hair. I can’t use it because I’m bald so they tend to really really be…they march on with the apple cider vinegar in their hair.
You know, another one is definitely smoothies and green drinks and I don’t have a specific recipe, you know, and there’s a reason for that. You know, because so many people get caught up in like, “Oh, my gosh. What’s your greatest recipe for this? What’s your recipe for that?” I literally live…when it comes to, you know, smoothies and juices I live by the 80/20 Rule. And that 80/20 Rule is 80% vegetables, 20% fruits. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone, you know, with this on Facebook or your comments and saying, “Oh, my God. I had the best pineapple, banana, apple and kiwi smoothie,” and it’s just like that is way too much sugar going into your system.
So, you know…I mean even try it, you might feel a little weird after you’re, you know, eating and drinking all that sugar. So, I always like to use 80%, you know, typically greens. I like to use greens because I don’t really like to eat a handful of kale, you know, every day. So I put that in my smoothie and then you balance it out with something, you know, like an apple, carrots or maybe throw in some ginger too. So stuff like that where we tell people, you know, about this smoothie and green drinks or juices that don’t always put fruits in there. You know, make sure you go buy an 80/20 rule, at least of adding 80%, you know, vegetables and 20% fruits. And so that’s another one that really works out well.
And then I would say kind of the last one for us is…it’s funny. This one always…because people are just afraid to talk about it but it’s poop, you know. We always talk about what do you need for a healthy poop. What are the good foods for a healthy poop? And so anytime we talk about that people are definitely intrigued because it truly is…this just sounds a little weird, Katie, but it’s the window to your insides, meaning, if it’s not a healthy poop, if it’s coming out where it’s a little too loose then something might be going wrong. Maybe something…you had something different last night that you shouldn’t have. But then if it feels comfortable coming out and, you know, everything is good…I don’t wanna get too detailed here that you might be on the path to a good good healthy diet.
So, we always say, you know, take a look at it. Peek at your poop. Make sure you know what’s going on. And people love that stuff. So it’s just the easy stuff and it kind of all goes back to kind of bring this full circle with what I learned from Ron Rathbun and the meditation which is just give people what they want for free and they will always trust you and keep coming back to you. And that’s how we’ve always…that’s been our philosophy is let’s just give people. So, we give them free content, you know. We give them all of the stuff for free on a daily basis. So, you know, tons of articles, tons of videos a day and people just seem to “eat it up.” And that’s what my folks like.
Katie: I’m right there with you. I think…I really do think if you give people the information for free and make it very doable and practical that they will take that and run and I think that’s a big thing for both of us. At the end of the day, we want things to actually change from people’s health to improve and so we’re able to both do that.
Jake: Absolutely.
Katie: For sure. And one thing I’d love to hear personally, and I bet listeners would too, is what your typical day looks like personally and how do you incorporate all these natural remedies and health things?
Jake: It’s funny because I get that question a lot from people and it’s… I was at Whole Foods the other day and I was going out picking some produce or I forget what, some eggplant or something like that. And somebody came up to me and, you know, they asked me like, “Are you a chef?” And I was like, “No, why?” And she said, “The way that you’re actually examining these foods. It’s really interesting. I like to learn more about it.” I was laughing. I was like, “I just like to eat healthily and I run this, you know, small little health website.” So the one thing that…and I kind of heard about it before with the apple cider vinegar is if you start off as soon as I get up, whether it is with like greens… I like to get a greens whether it’s a juice or a supplement type of powder in. One of the first things I do is when I get up, if I don’t have apple cider vinegar I do rotate it a bit. So either I have like a greens drink and/or a apple cider vinegar before and after. I’ll start off with one of those and then I do flush out my system. I do get a lot of water. I’m a big, big, big water drinker. I mean I probably drink 10 to 12 of my big cups of water each day. So I like to flush a lot of stuff out using some water.
Some other days I also start it with warm lemon water. That’s also something that’s been a huge huge hit for us at The Alternate Daily is doing some research and some articles on why you should start your day with warm lemon water. It just really gets your digestive system going and helps balance up the pH. And then I’ll do a breakfast, you know. I really like to get a lot of protein in the morning so I’ll do some eggs. So I’ll just do eggs and I don’t really put anything in there other than maybe some, you know, some sea salt into there.
And then I’m pretty full but I pretty much snack on, you know, nuts and berries throughout the day. And then around lunchtime that’s when I’ll actually have, you know, an avocado. I’ll try to get some greens in as well, you know, a banana. And again some more nuts, kind of keep that protein going and again continually snack. I love nuts. Raw nuts are the best and so I continually eat those throughout the day. And then, you know, before when I was kind of really unhealthy I would always max out with a big meal at the end. You know, I eat a lot for breakfast and lunch that I just don’t like to eat a lot for dinner. So I kind of graze again at dinner but tons of water throughout the day. I do drink probably two to three glasses of the apple cider vinegar mixed with water and the coffee.
I will admit I am a little bit of a coffee snob. So I will have my coffee in the morning whether I do have a bulletproof or not. And then I will also maybe do a coffee pretty much after lunch like around 2:00 and not really one after that. But I’m just one of those people that enjoys…I truly enjoy a good dark roast coffee and it’s good. You know, it’s funny because coffee’s kind of the same thing as coconut oil. Like a lot of people for the longest time thought it was so bad for you, you know, it’s so bad. But if you get the right kind of coffee and you put in the right…you know, if you’re gonna put a cream in there, I use, you know, heavy whipping cream which is a good saturated fat for it.
So, I put in heavy whipping cream. In the afternoon I won’t do the bulletproof for the afternoon. Heavy whipping cream and some coconut crystals and, you know, I never get that…it’s not that I have a low after my lunch. I just, you know, just one another taste of coffee and then I’m good to go. So that’s what I do is just continually to try and to eat whole foods throughout the day. And again, you know, we all go out to eat occasionally. And I know that if I will go out to eat or if I will go to somebody’s house that doesn’t cook the best food that’s up to par, I’m a very very easygoing person. So what I’ll try to do is, you know, if I know that I’m going somewhere where it’s not gonna be the best food that I particularly like, I’ll eat, you know, a handful of nuts. So I’ll try to eat before and have a smoothie, have a greens drinks so that way I’m a little full. And I will taste something in front of people. I will have a little bit just…because, you know, people will get pissed off if you don’t hit the food.
So, you know, I will have a bite or two of what they’re serving and be nice so that we just don’t have to get in a conversation of, you know, why I’m not eating their foods. But that’s kind of how I go about my day. And it’s good and the big thing for me and I’m sure you probably preach this is I’m big on like testing yourself, meaning if you wanna go out have a meal at Outback or whatever, how do you feel afterwards? I mean if you don’t feel good, something’s wrong. And I can tell you 100% of the time with having, you know, my morning greens and my eggs and then having avocados and bananas and berries and nuts, I never feel badly after having those. And I always have a good source of energy. And I never go to sleep kind of like with a bellyache. And that’s what I’m very big on is, you know, is how do you feel after you eat. If it’s good, you know what? Keep doing what you’re doing but keep researching what you’re doing to make sure you’re doing it the right way.
But if it’s bad, you know, change it up. If you don’t feel good, change it up. But I think as you probably know too, there is that stage, and a lot of my friends talk about this, of that transition period from when you go from really bad junk food eating to clean eating. There is a transition period where you’re kind of, you know…hey, what is this food that’s getting introduced, you know? And then once you’re in the clean eating stage and you go back for a meal or two of eating some of like the bad food, you feel it even more. And whether it’s you’re more aware of it now or whether it’s actually hurting you a little bit more is up for debate. But I’m definitely more of aware of it now that I am clean eating now so…
Katie: I definitely agree. I think that personalization is so important because one thing I found recently, I’ve had Hashimoto’s…thyroid problems for a while. And, you know, eggs are considered a super food in most in the health industry. And I noticed something in my diet was still not affecting me while even though I was pretty much off dairy and off grains and off a lot of the inflammatory foods. And so I had the chance to run the IgG and IgE and IgM test and it turns out egg was one of my bad ones. And so once I removed eggs I found I got better which was surprising because eggs are a health food. So, I think at the end of the day you do have to look at your own personal story, not take anything…I mean we would both say this I’m sure. Even anything we write, don’t take it at face value. Research everything always.
Jake: A hundred percent. And always just go back to, you know, how do you feel afterward. And like I was bringing up, you know, the heavy cream in your coffee and stuff like that. That may not sit well with you but, you know, it’s fine for me. And for me personally sometimes green tea can be a little too strong for me where it kind of gives me a little fuzz. So, you know, if I do have green tea I really…I’ll have it. I’ll steep it. But I’ll add a ton more water to it and, you know, maybe even ice it down because it’s sometimes it can get just really almost too potent for me where I kind of, as I like to say, get a little tweaked out. So it definitely, you know…but green tea is great, has great properties for everybody, you know, anti-cancer properties. But for me I just can’t have such a concentrated selection of it but, you know, I could get my coffee in to which helps.
But absolutely, it’s very personalized and I think that’s where the industry is going…and I shouldn’t even say industry but kind of, you know, health in general. And people should be looking and is like, how does it affect you? Even though what you read on The Alternate Daily or Wellness Mama or whatever you see, you know, but how does it affect you? Try it. You know, at least try it so…
Katie: Absolutely. And I’m excited to see a lot of the technologies moving toward having lab tests be very assessable and a lot less expensive, which I think is gonna be huge for a lot of people.
Jake: Absolutely, and that’s gonna be good from the supplement range too is, you know, a lot of people will just take a supplement because it’s been said that it’s good for you. And supplements will help some people out but you might need a little bit more milligrams or whatever it is than, you know, the typical person or you might actually need a lot…you might need to put a lot less. And, you know, there’s definitely some good technologies coming out there that will be able to test people for that in saying you only need, you know, this amount for you specifically of this specific supplement and that’s just gonna make everybody better.
Katie: Definitely. Well, I cannot believe we’re coming to the end of our time already because I’ve had so much fun chatting. But I always ask three questions at the end.
Jake: Go for it.
Katie: So I would love to hear your answers. What is one piece of advice you wish someone had given you earlier in your life?
Jake: One piece of advice I wish somebody would have given me earlier in life. I would say…and it kind of goes back to what we were saying, which is I don’t wanna say doubt everything but question everything. And that’s how I’ve always kind of lived my life and I wish I would have seen that a little earlier, just doubt, you know…not doubt everything, question everything and get your own opinion, you know. And you need to be happy more than anything else. And you become more happy when you question, you know, status quo. And status quo might be right at that time or not but at least you have your own answer. And so it’s question everything and make sure that you are happy with yourself. So for me those two go really hand in hand together.
Katie: I love that. And the next one is, one, if you had to boil it down to one action step, what’s one thing you would recommend for listeners to start doing today to improve their health?
Jake: It has to go back to the testing yourself, meaning, you know, adding in more greens or adding in, you know, less wheat. And there are still people out there that are reading your blog, that are reading mine, that are saying, you know what? Maybe, you know, the whole wheat thing doesn’t apply to me or maybe that gluten doesn’t really apply to me. Well, really, you know, take a step back and see how you feel after a meal and be honest with yourself. That’s a huge thing is being honest with yourself. But it took me the longest time when I…you know, starting to get down my grains and get down on my, you know, your breads and pastas which was I wasn’t feeling good at night and for the longest time I lied to myself because, you know, pastas are good. We need those carbs but I finally looked at it and said, I don’t feel good.
It’s okay not to eat bread and pasta anymore. I started feeling way better at night and lost a ton of weight. So, you know, test it on yourself. Test with good things. Test, you know, taking some of this stuff out and see how you feel and I think that that, you know, will only benefit you.
Katie: Absolutely. And then lastly, what is a favorite health resource you have, maybe a book or a website or even a documentary, besides obviously your own site? Which I’m gonna link to in the show notes.
Jake: Sure. Other than the wellnessmama.com which is obviously one of my go-to pages after I check my own, you know, when it comes down for me…and I’m gonna come full circle with our entire chat which is, you know, it comes to the whole wellbeing and wellness of a person. And what led me down this road was, you know, was meditation and which really kind of helped me get into being self-aware, being food aware, being environmentally aware. And, you know, even though it doesn’t come down to food for this last little recommendation, I would feel that I wasn’t doing this justice and say but it was definitely I would have your folks look into meditation and specifically it’s Kelee Meditation, you know, K-E-L-E-E. It’s actually called the kelee.org.
And I have no financial or affiliate or any type of affiliation with them. It’s just that, you know, it helps me become a better person all around from a foods perspective, from a mind body perspective, from a spiritual perspective. And I definitely would recommend that book to anybody.
Katie: Awesome. And, Jake, where can people find you if they wanna read more of your work?
Jake: Sure. So, you have thealternativedaily.com. And for your folks, you know, that are listening to this if you ever wanna email me, it’s jake@thealternativedaily.com. We’d love to hear from you guys and, you know, just check us out every day. You know, we update the site five or six times a day. We do videos. We do contests. We do a lot of things. So we’re really out there trying to give you guys the best content, the best kind of breaking news in alternative health that’s out there and we’d love to hear from your folks.
Katie: Awesome. Well, thank you Jake so much for being here. And thank you to all of you for listening. And just a reminder, you can go to wellnessmama.com/go/coconut book, all one word, and get a great discount on Jake’s “Coconut Oil Secret Book.” And also go to thealternativedaily.com and read all of their great information there.
And if you would, I’d be really appreciative if you would take a second to subscribe to this podcast and leave a rating or review so that others can find us as well. And until next time, have a healthy week.
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